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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Exegesis of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “O Children of Israel, remember My favor which I have bestowed upon you, and fulfill My covenant, I will fulfill your covenant, and fear none but Me,” and the grammatical analysis of “and fear none but Me”

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In this noble verse, its apparent meaning is that they are eternal therein forever, and Allah has explicitly stated this in three known places.
Then he said:
O Children of Israel يبني إسرائيل
Who is Israel? He is Ya'qub (Jacob), the son of Ishaq (Isaac), the son of Ibrahīm (Abraham). So his grandfather is Ibrahīm, and Isma'il (Ismail)'s father is Ibrahīm, and his children are the maternal cousins of the Children of Israel. For this reason, the Arabs and the Children of Israel were maternal cousins, and fitnah, enmity, and hatred occurred between them. Consequently, the Children of Israel—meaning the Children of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) were among them—envied the Arabs.
remember My favor which I have bestowed upon youاذكروا نعمتي التي أنعمت عليكم
[Al-Baqarah 2:40]
Remember it with your hearts, remember it with your tongues, and remember it with your actions. This is because gratitude encompasses these three things: the heart, the tongue, and the limbs.
And His saying:
My favorنعمتي
is a singular possessive noun, which encompasses all favors. Allah the Exalted bestowed many favors upon the Children of Israel, preferring them over all the worlds. Musa (Moses) (peace be upon him) said to them:
O my people, remember the favor of Allah upon you when He appointed among you prophets and made you possessors and gave you that which He had not given anyone among the worlds. يا قوم اذكروا نعمة الله عليكم إذ جعل فيكم أنبياء وجعلكم ملوكا وآتاكم ما لم يؤت أحدا من العالمين
[Al-Ma'idah 5:20]
.
And His saying:
which I have bestowed upon youالتي أنعمت عليكم
[Al-Baqarah 2:40]
One might say: Does not His saying:
My favorنعمتي
suffice for it? We say: Yes, in terms of sufficiency it suffices, but mentioning it indicates the perfection of Allah's (Mighty and Majestic) favor, where He said:
I have bestowed upon youأنعمت عليكم
And with the verbal form indicating the creation of these favors, and that had it not been for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) being the One who bestowed them, they would not have been attained by them.
fulfill My covenant [upon you] that I will fulfill your covenant [from Me] وأوفوا بعهدي أوف بعهدكم
[Al-Baqarah 2:40]
Fulfillأوفوا
means: Bring it complete. And His covenant (Glorified and Exalted is He) is that He covenanted with them to establish prayer, give zakah, and believe in the messengers, as Allah the Exalted said:
And Allah had already taken a covenant from the Children of Israel, and We delegated from among them twelve leaders. And Allah said, "I am with you. If you establish prayer and give zakah and believe in My messengers and support them and loan Allah a goodly loan لقد أخذ الله ميثاق بني إسرائيل وبعثنا منهم اثني عشر نقيبا وقال الله إني معكم لإن أقمتم الصلاة وآتيتم الزكاة وآمنتم برسلي وعزرتموهم وأقرضتم الله قرضا حسنا
[Al-Ma'idah 5:12]
This is the covenant of Allah,
I will surely remove from you your misdeeds لأكفرن عنكم سيئاتكم
[Al-Ma'idah 5:12]
I will fulfill your covenantأوف بعهدكم
What is the covenant of Allah with them? The One who covenanted with them, if they fulfill His covenant, that He will fulfill it:
I will surely remove from you your misdeeds and admit you to gardens beneath which rivers flowلأكفرن عنكم سيئاتكم ولأدخلنكم جنات تجري من تحتها الأنهار
[Al-Ma'idah 5:12]
So if they had fulfilled the covenant of Allah, Allah would have fulfilled His covenant with them.
And of Me alone should you fear وإياي فارهبون
Fear Me aloneإياي فارهبون
There is a grammatical issue here. First, "arhabun" (fear) originally is "arhabuni" (fear me) with the yā' (I), and it is omitted for the sake of considering the rhyming endings. So if "arhabun" has taken its object, where is the operator for
Me aloneإياي
? Whoever permits the operator to govern two objects has no issue, but whoever does not permit this, this is an issue. It is said that the operator in
Me aloneإياي
is estimated according to the context. And we can say: Fear Me, fear Me
Fear Me aloneفارهبون
. As for the fā' in His saying:
Fear Me aloneفارهبون
, it is said that it is for the beauty of the expression. And "rihba" (fear) is fear that implies an increase in being affected by what one fears, because you feel that it indicates softness and that this fear is an affecting fear.
Source alathar.net

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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